"when the sun sets, we start to worry..." "when the sun sets, we start to worry..." AN ACCOUNT OF LIFE IN NORTHERN UGANDA A United Nations OCHA/IRIN Publication ,y "when the sun sets, we start to worry..." AN ACCOUNT OF LIFE IN NORTHERN UGANDA 2 Child peeps through the unfinished wall of a hut in one of the many IDP camps in northern Uganda FOREWORD Since taking up my duties as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator I have pointed out that I will use my office to highlight the suffering of vulnerable people across the world and to ensure a speedy and adequate humanitarian response to their pleas. In a world that is moving ever closer together, we must not allow any of these voices to go unheard or any humanitarian crisis to be forgotten. The long yet often overlooked conflict in northern Uganda is one such example. Despite great strides in fighting HIV/AIDS and revitalizing the economy, Uganda has not succeeded in finding a solution to this tragedy. The conflict in northern Uganda is characterised by a level of cruelty seldom seen elsewhere. It pits not just adults but also children against one another, and excludes vast swathes of the population from participation in any semblance of development. No one knows how many people have died as a result of the conflict, but every day schools, homes, villages and families are destroyed, still more people are abducted, enslaved, beaten, raped, and made to fight for the rebels. Most of these abductees are children. Look into the eyes of a child who has been repeatedly brutalised, tortured or raped, as I did when I visited northern Uganda, and you will never forget what you find there. This abuse of children is one of the most serious in the world. It calls for urgent and concerted action. The international community has shown an increasing understanding of, and concern for, the suffering of the people of northern Uganda. Its assistance continues to be instrumental in addressing some of the overwhelming humanitarian needs of those 3 afflicted by displacement, disease and disability. Yet the traumatic nightmare of the people remains, haunting hundreds of thousands, sowing bitterness and destroying their future. Much more material assistance is required. An even greater requirement is the peaceful solution of the conflict in Northern Uganda. The nature of the conflict, its protracted duration and, above all, the punitive and extremely harsh toll it has imposed on the children, on the entire population, urges the need for a negotiated settlement, which, I believe, is the only possible solution. The current publication “When the sun sets, we start to worry…” tries to help the world better understand this conflict by capturing the pictures and stories of those most affected by the endless cycle of suffering. From girls abducted from dormitory beds and forced to become “wives”, to boys made to club other children to death, to parents who have no news of their children taken away so long ago, the stories told by the photos and by the victims themselves are of a population in despair. The world owes them better, for the sake of peace and for the sake of humanity. They cannot and should not be abandoned. Jan Egeland UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator 4 Former abductees at the Kichwa Rehabilitation Centre in Kitgum 5 Elderly man soon after his arrival at the child protection unit (CPU) in Gulu. The rebels had forced 6 him to carry their loot for days with little food and water, then released him OVERVIEW “This is a funny war. I cannot even describe it. The rebels are killing their own brothers and mothers. We are killing ourselves. We are confused.” Nelson Ojok, primary school teacher at Kilak Corner IDP camp in Pader District, northern Uganda. The war that has raged for 17 years in northern Uganda has left its people battered and bruised, tormented by grief, despair and fear. Few conflicts rival it for sheer brutality. Civilians have been killed and mutilated. Thousands have been abducted, tortured and sexually abused. Many have been forced to commit atrocities or to look on, helpless, as others are beaten, raped or murdered. Abducted children are forced to work as labourers, soldiers or sex slaves. More than 1.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes. Deprived of their means of livelihood, once proud farmers and their families now depend entirely on the food they receive in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many people have little or no access to proper medical care. Education has been disrupted. Many children do not sleep at home for fear of being abducted. Instead, they walk kilometres at the end of each day from their villages to the relative safety of towns, where they spend the night in public buildings or on the streets. Collective trauma Since 1986, northern Uganda has been racked by insurgencies. The latest and longest of these rebellions, that of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has devastated Acholi, an area close to Uganda’s border with Sudan, and has now spread to the neighbouring subregions of Teso and Lango. No one knows for sure how many people have died, but estimates run into the tens of thousands. The war between the LRA and the national army, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces 7 (UPDF) has had a telling effect on the inhabitants of northern Uganda. The three districts of the Acholi subregion, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, have been particularly hard hit. Death and disease rates are high, and food is scarce. About 80 percent of Acholi’s people live in “protected villages” and camps for IDPs, which are often overcrowded, and lack adequate water, sanitation and health services. Devoid of any means of livelihood in the camps, a people of farmers and cattle rearers has been reduced to near-total dependence on donated food and other humanitarian aid. Child abductions have long been a major feature of the conflict, but the number shot up after the UPDF launched an offensive against the LRA in March 2002. The rebels kidnapped more than 10,000 children between June 2002 and October 2003, up from 101 in 2001. This brought the total number abducted by the LRA since the start of the conflict to more than 20,000. Abductees are made to carry heavy loads over long distances. Those who lag behind or fall ill are beaten or killed. Some are forced to kill, maim, beat or abduct innocent victims, or to look on as such abuses are committed. Sexual violence against girls and women is rampant. They are used as domestic servants or forced into sexual slavery as LRA commanders’ ‘wives’. They are subject to rape, unwanted pregnancy and the risk of infection, including HIV. One of the visible signs of the collective trauma to which the people of northern Uganda have been subjected is the phenomenon of “night commuters”. These are vulnerable people who, fearing abduction, move from the countryside into slightly more secure towns or camps at the end of each day. Most are children who walk up to 10 km to seek refuge from the threat of abduction and violence. They gather in schools, hospitals, district offices, and NGO compounds - wherever they think they can spend the night in safety. Many have to sleep in the open, where they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The UN has estimated the number of night commuters in Gulu and Kitgum districts at 25,000. 8 Few schools operate in the north, and these are mostly in towns, which are relatively safe. LRA attacks led to the closure or destruction of 136 out of 189 primary schools in Gulu District in 1996, according to one aid agency. Local officials reported this year that about half the schools in Kitgum and around 90 percent in Pader had been closed. Conflict rooted in history The conflict that has spawned the humanitarian emergency in northern Uganda is rooted in the country’s recent history, with its complex mix of uneven social and economic development, violent regional conflict and marginalisation of minorities by governments and elites in power. After the National Resistance Movement/Army of President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986, there was a widespread fear in the north, especially among the Acholi people, that it would take revenge for atrocities committed when northerners dominated the army. NRA military actions, during which Acholis were abused, tortured or ‘disappeared’, partially justified these fears, leading many to join rebel movements. These included the Uganda People’s Democratic Army (elements of the Ugandan army who fled to Sudan and regrouped after the NRA took power) and Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement. Lakwena emerged in late 1986, claiming to be possessed by a spirit that was guiding her for the good of the Acholi people, who felt they were being victimised. Her movement offered Acholi soldiers ritual purification for past misdeeds, along with a moral and religious mission to support their opposition to the NRM. This won her some degree of popular support among the Acholi. Her movement was defeated by the Ugandan army in 1987, but her claim that she had spiritual guidance inspired Joseph Kony, who has also purported to be visited by spirits. He gathered remnants of the Holy Spirit Movement around him and formed the Uganda People’s Democratic Christian Army, which became the LRA around 1994. Observers say Kony’s supposed religious mysticism is where the similarity to Lakwena 9 ends.